War of the Worlds With Wizards: a hypothetical.

[The Romulan Republic]

Cross-posting this from the StarDestroyer.net forums, because I thought some people here might find it entertaining:

Okay, so I've been reading a lot of War of the Worlds lately (a fantastic book which has aged very well in my opinion, and is one of the few SF works I've read that I would consider a genuine literary classic even outside the genre), and a lot of Harry Potter stuff, and I was thinking about Grindelwald's plot to start a war with the Muggles in Fantastic Beasts, and I got this idea.

Basically, its the same scenario as in The War of the Worlds (the original novel), except that this is the war in an alternate reality: specifically, the Harry Potter-verse. Assume also that in this scenario, the Martians do not all die off (supposedly of disease), and that the Martians have no magical-type abilities beyond perhaps telepathy (which is posited as a possible means of communication for them in the book).

Can the wizards defeat (or conceal themselves from) the invaders? Will they fight openly, risking the Statute of Secrecy? And what might the long-term implications of such a decision be?

[phantom000]

You are basically describing a war between magic and technology. The advanced weapons of the Martians pitted against the magical talents of the wizards.

Personally i think a full fledged martian invasion would be just too big for the wizard world to just write off as 'a muggle problem' like they might with the world wars. The only question is would they try to remain hidden or would they be scarred enough to fight openly and deal with the implications later.

What i might try is in the chaos of the first wave a few wizards panic and use their magic openly to try and stop the martians, only to discover that the British Empire has been aware of magic for a while and was quietly observing them.

[The Romulan Republic]

Yeah, I don't think the wizards can sit it out. It is possible that some of their concealment spells might work, but for others, their's no guarantee. Would a Muggle-repelling spell affect an alien mind the same way? Or Obliviate?

Moreover, Wizarding populations and institutions in Muggle cities would likely be in the line of fire.

And their is a very real possibility that wizards could not survive without Muggles- their population is tiny, and Hagrid outright says they'd have died out without breeding with Muggles.

That said, Potter magic is very limited in a direct fight, and much more geared towards covert operations and terrorism. So it likely becomes a guerrilla war, with saboteurs striking from hidden Wizarding enclaves. Though I'm curious as to weather they could control a fighting machine with magic.

[phantom000]

That said, Potter magic is very limited in a direct fight, and much more geared towards covert operations and terrorism. So it likely becomes a guerrilla war, with saboteurs striking from hidden Wizarding enclaves. Though I'm curious as to weather they could control a fighting machine with magic.

Who knows, but from what i have seen in the movies (I never read the books) they often use magic to sort of recreate or enhance technology. Like weasley's flying car or the ship that moves under water. So maybe the wizards could build war machines of their own.

They could twist things around into some very interesting weapons. Remember the rogue bludger? Imagine something like that, only a bit bigger and made of solid steel, crashing into a martian heat-ray at 100 MPH. I mean it is practically a self-guided cannon ball.

[The Romulan Republic]

Combative magic tends to fall into four main categories:

Infiltration: Your mind control and memory-wiping spells, and concealments spells.

One on one duelling spells- stunners, shield charms, body-binds, etc., right up to the Unforgivable Curses. Generally point and fire, line of sight, though some are slightly more area of effect, and the more powerful ones often take a particular mental/emotional state (and, at least in the case of the Killing Curse, a lot of raw power) to use.

Area of effect spells: Things like shielding or concealing an area, putting up anti-apparition charms, etc. Fiendfyre is an offensive area effect spell (albeit a very dangerous and difficult to control one).

What I'm going to call "Proxy spells": animating objects (such as furniture, statues, suites of armour) to fight as proxies. Also the only known way (besides sacrificing oneself out of love) to block the Killing Curse with magic (as Dumbledore demonstrates in his book duel with Voldemort, which in my opinion is far superior to the film version). Another variant to this is sending in magical creatures to fight, like Voldemort did with the Dementors, giants, and Acromantulas at the Battle of Hogwarts.

The Martians, meanwhile, have two main weapons demonstrated in the book: the heat ray, which appears to be something like a laser (invisible heat that can burn living things and melt/cut through metal, including early 20th. Century warship hulls), and the Black Smoke, some kind of area effect chemical weapons which kills anyone who breaths (or comes in contact with?) it. At least the Black Smoke canisters, to my recollection (and likely the heat rays) seem to outrange the early 20th. Century artillery they face. The Martians have two known main classes of combat vehicle- the giant tripods, and a kind of large aircraft. From recollection, the tripods are armed with both heat ray and Black Smoke, and their's a passage suggesting that the plane can deploy the Black Smoke. They can also presumably bombard the Earth with shells or solid projectiles rather than manned capsules, if they choose to.

Edit: Of these, I think we can safely say that unless they catch a Martian outside of their machines, most of the Wizarding duelling spells will be worthless. Though using stealth to get close and then getting creative with transfiguration or animating spells could be a way to sabotage or highjack the Martian machines. The stealth spells will likely be of some utility for concealment, though how much depends on the extent to which spells designed to effect human (especially Muggle) minds work on the Martians. Proxy spells aren't going to help unless they can control something strong enough to take on a Martian war machine (or use them on a war machine to control it). For area effect spells, the most useful offensive one would be Fiendfyre- it might well have the power to damage a Martian war machine. However, it is extremely dangerous to use.

An Obscurus would be likely uncontrollable as well, but effective given that one easily demolished a skyscraper in the Fantastic Beasts film.